Wednesday, July 21, 2010

We are launching the book Why Coolidge Matters: How Civility in Politics Can Bring a Nation Together on August 3rd at the Library of Congress. The book is a collection of essays from a bipartisan group of authors including Senator Leahy and Gov. Douglas (Vermont), Senator Kerry, as well as a host of historians, scholars and civic leaders.

While [Calvin] Coolidge’s presidency is not one that comes to mind immediately, it is a little known fact that he is very much revered by both sides of the aisle for the way in which he conducted business during his presidency. We were hoping you would include this book in upcoming coverage, because this effort made by both sides of the aisle is a call to action to bring civility back into today’s politics.

And, August 3rd happens to be the day when Calvin Coolidge was sworn in, the only U.S. president to date, to have been sworn in to office by a Notary Public. Following the sudden death of President Warren G. Harding [in 1923], Coolidge had to forgo the pomp and circumstances of the official swearing-in ceremony of a new president, traditionally conducted on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, and instead took the oath of office in the living room of his family farm in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, by a Notary Public, who also happened to be the new president’s father, John. At 2:30 am, on August 3, 1923, John Calvin Coolidge Jr. officially became the 30th president of the United States.